Mandate

State-owned National Power Corporation (Napocor) inaugurates its first mini-grid in Palawan, granting access to electricity to 130 initial households in Nangalao, Linapacan.

Napocor said that it has allotted an 80-kW generating set and granted 8 hours of electricity to the community which has 170 more potential households and will add capacities/operating hours accordingly to the growing demand.

“The community’s main source of livelihood is fishing. Now with electricity, we wish to bring tourism in the picture since the island has huge potential in attracting tourists,” said Napocor President and CEO Pio J. Benavidez.

The project is part of a Memorandum of Agreement signed by Napocor and the Provincial Government of Palawan which stipulates the former’s provision of generating sets, fuel and manpower, and the latter’s commitment to provide for the powerhouse and plant site.

“The provincial government also provided the distribution line in Nangalao which helped us expedite the energization of the area,” Benavidez said.

Linapacan is an island municipality located south of the Calamian Group of Islands (Busuanga, Coron, Culion). It is one of the many undiscovered paradise in the Philippines that boasts of clear waters and breathtaking marine reserve.

Of the seven other new areas in Palawan to be electrified under the said MOA, three (3) more areas are scheduled this year – Barangays Casian, Paly and Beyton in Taytay. The remaining barangays, Tara in Coron, Concepcion in Agutaya, and Bancalan 1 and 2 in Balabac are scheduled to be energized in 2019.

Meanwhile, Napocor has recently granted 24/7 power to its diesel power plants in Tagapul-an in Samar, Balut in Davao Occidental, Almagro in Samar, and Cabul-an in Bohol benefiting a total of 2,900 households.

Napocor, the national government’s arm for missionary electrification, presently operates and manages 275 power facilities in 190 municipalities across 34 provinces in the archipelago. END

The National Power Corporation (NPC) remains a government-owned and -controlled corporation mandated to perform missionary electrification or powering the farthest islands in the archipelago thru its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG); watershed and dams management in support of power generation; and operations and maintenance of the Agus and Pulangi Hydropower Complexes in Mindanao. It is an attached agency of the Department of Energy (DOE).